Prominent women from the United Houma Nation ate dinner between the Indian Mounds located near the Manship School of Mass Communication on Monday night. Their visit to LSU was the third stop in the seven-day “Returning to Our Roots” project — a trip to promote health and visit various sites with significance to the United Houma Nation’s history.
On each day of the journey, which began Oct. 24, the women visited a site and discussed different topics and issues together.
“We’re a matriarchal tribe. Our women have always been strong leaders, very vocal,” said Lanor Curole, director and member of the United Houma Nation. “They are the voice and the decision-makers for a lot of families.”
The “Returning to Our Roots” project’s participants stopped in Baton Rouge, the city named after the red boundary markers distinguishing Houma territory from neighboring tribes. The women met with representatives from the LSU Office of Diversity to discuss issues like educational opportunities, then proceeded to visit the Indian Mounds.
A similar journey following the path of Choctaw people on the Trail of Tears helped inspire the project, said Michelle Johnson-Jennings, an assistant professor at University of Minnesota and clinical health psychologist.
Johnson-Jennings, who identifies as Choctaw, said she believes the high rates of diabetes and obesity experienced by the Houma may be a legacy of past strife.
“Any time you have a group of people that have been historically traumatized you have higher stress levels,” said Johnson- Jennings.
Research into epigenetics shows environmental factors like stressful experiences can have negative health effects on multiple generations to follow, resulting in greater rates of diabetes and stress-related medical problems, Johnson-Jennings said. By promoting healthier lifestyles the damage can be reduced.
Despite consisting of more than 17,000 members and being recognized as a tribe by Louisiana, the United Houma Nation has yet to be acknowledged by the federal government, said Jessi Parfait, the United Houma Nation Archivist.
The government must consult with federally recognized tribes before making some decisions that affect them, and that status provides access to health care programs, development grants and tribal land rights, geography assistant professor Brian Marks said.
To be federally recognized a tribe must meet criteria such as demonstration of a continuity of historical existence. This has proved difficult for the Houma because of the group’s tumultuous past.
Accepted evidence for federal recognition includes newspaper records, yet the only Houma newspaper’s offices were burned and the printing-press thrown into a nearby bayou as punishment for attacks on Union soldiers right after the Civil War, Parfait said.
Parfait, an LSU graduate, works to gather and sort information for a digital database on the history of the Houma to preserve their past and solidify their status in the eyes of the federal government. Parfait is optimistic that data proving the Houma’s claim is out there.
“I think if I pick through enough things I’m going to eventually find something,” Parfait said.
The isolated nature of many Houma communities made documentation difficult.
“They hid out. They went into these coastal marshes and swamps and remote areas to live because of discrimination because they were forced off the lands they lived on.” Marks said.
Severe hurricanes, including one believed to have wiped an entire coastal Houma community off the map, further compounded the challenges associated with establishing an unbroken continuity, Parfait said.
In segregation-era Louisiana, the existence of living Native American populations in Louisiana was denied, as they did not fit into the binary racial worldview of white and black. They were barred from educational opportunities at white- and black-only schools, Marks said.
As a result, promoting education is a major focus of modern Houma leaders. The United Houma Nation’s lack of government acknowledgement also inhibits certain educational opportunities for it’s people, with many scholarships for Native Americans tied to federal recognition.